Richard Irwin, head of student recruitment at PwC, said: “We’ve seen early applications to the firm skyrocket this year because students wanted to be first in line for the jobs as soon as they were created.”

He added there was also a “pool” of graduates from 2009 returning to the job market, increasing competition. However, the firm has 600 vacancies remaining, and hopes to fill them by April.

The report shows a 12.6% increase in graduate vacancies on 2010. However, there are still 6% fewer vacancies being offered by the larger recruiters compared to 2007.

“The class of 2011 will be disappointed to hear that graduate recruitment has yet to return to the pre-recessioon levels seen in 2007, especially as there are an estimated 50,000 extra graduates leaving university in 2011 compared with four years ago,” said Martin Birchall, MD of High Fliers.